The annual “Ten Years On” blind tasting returned to its normal schedule after recent delays due to the pandemic. This year we looked at the 2012s, with 2018 Southwold fresh in our minds.
If it’s January, then it’s Southwold time. Every year, for a quarter of a century now, I’ve headed off to this charming little seaside town (home of the famous Adnams Brewery) to taste through the latest Bordeaux vintage to be physically released onto the market. When I started attending this great annual event I was the youngest person there, but certainly that is no longer the case! Sadly, we have lost Richard Peat, Bill Baker and John Avery from our ranks whilst Clive Coates, Jasper Morris and Roy Richards have de-camped to Burgundy. However, our group of twenty tasters still comprises the great and the good of the British wine world with young Masters of Wine Alex Hunt and Matthew Hemming joining senior MW’s David Roberts, Sebastian Payne and Mark Savage. There are representatives of the leading UK fine wine merchants as well as critics Jancis Robinson, Neal Martin and Steven Spurrier.
When we first tasted the 2012 Bordeaux En Primeur wines in spring 2013, the sense of a system struggling to attract customers and a feeling that Châteaux needed to drastically improve their pricing was the main topic of every conversation. Coupled with the recent memory of the truly outstanding 2009 and 2010 vintages, the quality of the wines was secondary to market forces at the time. The prices for young wines needed to fall back into line with mature vintages. Now in 2015, little has changed as far as En Primeur is concerned, but now that the 2012s are in bottle and being retasted, there is a ripple of excitement at the quality and approachability of the vintage. With that in mind, the Farr team got together this week to taste twelve 2012s over dinner to see just how good they are. With the right bank and Graves the most lauded of the vintage, we focused on these areas.
Robert Parker The annual "Wine Advocate" report by Robert Parker on the latest Bordeaux vintage is always the wine world's most eagerly awaited critical review. We have now had a chance to analyse his take on the 2012's which was published this weekend on www.erobertparker.com. It is a hard-hitting piece this year that not only reveals Mr Parker's favourite wines and appellations of the vintage but also takes no prisoners when discussing the prices at which 2012 Bordeaux needs to be sold in order for this en primeur campaign to be successful.
Today was spent on Bordeaux's right bank as we got to grips with Pomerol and Saint Emilion. 2012 is looking like a re-run of maybe 2001 - or even 1998 - at some properties here.
This morning was a great opportunity to conclude our coverage of the Médoc by attending the "Union des Grands Crus" tastings. First of all we tried the Saint Estèphes, Pauillacs and Saint Juliens at Phélan Ségur and then the Margaux wines at Labégorce.
We started the day with the three great Chateaux of Saint Estèphe - all of which have changed their management since this time last year.
Today was the start of the annual pilgrimage to Bordeaux for the Farr Vintners Sales and Purchasing team. Eleven of us assembled at Gatwick Airport for our flight to Merignac Airport. First stop was Chateau Rauzan Segla where John Kolasa and his team had assembled a huge line-up of samples from across the Bordeaux region for us to taste. There must have been well over 200 samples so it was a great chance for us to get familiar with the vintage.
